It's Not About the Ball! Read online

“You have chosen well.

  From now on,

  it will be you and your wife

  who will rule the kingdom.”

  THE POND

  PART 2

  Jake’s father came out of the house.

  “Jake!” he called.

  “Why is that ball in the water?

  Please don’t throw things there.”

  “Sorry, Dad,” Jake said.

  “There is a frog in the pond.

  We were trying to find out

  if it could talk.”

  “Well, did it talk?” asked his dad.

  “Yes,” said Jake,

  “but only in frog language.”

  Jake’s father laughed and said,

  “Don’t forget to take out the ball.”

  “Ribbit, ribbit,” said Lily.

  “What?” asked Jake.

  “I said I was sorry

  for throwing the ball in.”

  “Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit,”

  croaked Ben.

  “That meant, let’s take

  the ball out and play.”

  “RIBBIT!” Jake and Lily agreed.

  ABOUT THE STORIES

  In the popular version of The Frog Prince by the Grimm brothers, a princess drops her golden ball into the water and a frog retrieves it in return for a promise.

  The Promise is drawn from several versions of a folktale from Scotland called The Queen Who Sought a Drink from a Certain Well (“Wearie Well at the Warldis End”) that can be traced back to 1548. Similar versions of the story were also found in Germany.

  The Frog Boy is based on a story called Master Frog that comes from Vietnam.

  The Singing Frog was inspired by Little Frog, a South American fairy tale from Chile.